Why I Will Never Use YouTube Again
My name is Katie, I am in 10th grade. Ever since YouTube was created, I was always in love with it. But nowadays, I don’t think I ever want to use that site ever again... The experience I had was one of the worst I have ever had. So it all started in the year 2015, I was in my school doing some school work. I was in computer class. I was sitting in the back row where no one except beside me would see what I am doing, which I like that because some students in computer try to get me in trouble like that I was watching something I wasn’t suppose to be watching. My teacher: Mrs. Terry told us to look up YouTube videos of smoking PSAs. My friend Richard who sits beside me said: “I hate smoking PSAs. They creep the hell out of me. Especially that every cigarette is doing you damage one.” I said: “Agree.” I looked up the top 40 scariest smoking PSAs and copied a link and pasted it onto a PowerPoint presentation. One of the videos recommended was a video called: “Watch this video for a free friend! *NOT CLICKBAIT*” I thought it was clickbait since I have seen stuff like that happen sometimes. But my curiosity made me click the video. I really wish I would just continue with my work. The video was 39 seconds long. It showed a black background with a phone number: 919-696-0666 I thought: “Maybe this wasn’t clickbait.” So I wrote the number on a notepad I keep in my backpack. Meanwhile, I continued working. After school ended, I went home and Richard was at my door waiting for me. “Yo! Richard!” I called out. “What are you doing at my house?” He said: “I saw you took down a phone number from that video. I am curious about who you will call.” I sighed and said: “Fine...” So I knocked on the door. 20 seconds later, my mom opens the door and let ourselves in. We went upstairs to my room to get my laptop. We sat it on my bed and decided to go to YouTube. Richard wanted me to go to the YouTube video. I typed in the name of the video. It only showed 1 result. It was the same video, so I clicked it. Unlike the same way the video started from earlier at school, this time it played an ear piercing ring. I had to mute the video. The video at school would show the number, but this time, it showed a man committing suicide by hanging himself in an motel room. I was disturbed. And so was Richard. Then my laptop shut off. I turned it back on, and when it did, we were shocked. It was my desktop background, it was showing a lady trapped in a cage, she was bleeding from the mouth. The wallpaper was black and white. “Yo! What is going on?!” Shouted Richard. “I-I don’t know!” I said. Then my google chrome opened up, it was a YouTube video. It was a video of someone shaking the camera like crazy. Then stopped. Then a hand appeared and was pointing down the road. Then they started to walk down the road. It took me 10 seconds to realize that the road this person was on, is my road. I just thought this person lived on my road, but was nervous that they might not be. The person then reached my house and walked up to the door. They knocked and at the same time, we heard a knock at the door in real life. I heard my mom answer the door. She kept calling out: “Hello? Hellooo?” We saw the video ended. We were so confused and freaked out. I changed my wallpaper back to a sunset background. Richard was still freaked out and said: “Ok I’m freaking out right now, I’m leaving!” As he ran out of my house. I was freaked out like Richard was too. Later during the same day I fell asleep at around 7 PM. I woke up at exactly 3:00 AM. I heard my laptop turn on, and it played a YouTube video. It was Richard sleeping. I was nervous. Then a dark figure very slowly walked to Richard. I had my hands over my mouth in horror. The figure didn’t do anything. It just stood there for 2 minutes. Then climbed out of Richard’s bedroom window. I try to call Richard on my phone. But he never picked up. So I waited til next morning. I went to school and saw Richard. I ran to him and said: “Richard! Someone was in your bedroom last night!” He didn’t believe me, so I pulled out my phone and went to YouTube to find the video. What was convenient was that the video was in my history. So I clicked on it and showed him the video. He stared in horror as he watched. “WHAT THE?!” He said. “HOW DID THAT THING GET IN?! MY ROOM DOOR IS ALWAYS LOCKED WHEN I SLEEP!” I told him that it might’ve been in your closet. Richard gasped. He says that he now refuses to sleep in his room. During computer class, my teacher wanted us to watch YouTube videos of drinking and driving PSAs and put them in a PowerPoint presentation. While I was watching them, the YouTube site randomly switched to another video. I was in shock of what video it played. It was the same video with the phone number. This time it didn’t show the same number, it showed: my face. My face as of right now. It was like a livestream. But it wasn’t. I moved my head around, and so did me in the video. I waved my hand around, did the same thing. The video was in full screen. I try to exit, but it wouldn’t let me. I raised my hand for the teacher. She came over and I told her that something is wrong with my computer. She looked at it, and said: “Huh. Did you click live a video?” I said no. “Well we’ll have to call Mack the school computer maker to tell him this problem.” She walked away. When I looked back at my computer, there was someone dressed in all black with a hood over its head was standing 5 feet away from me. I turned around, no one was there. I looked back, the person was still there. But this time, with its face turned to me. I kept watching the man for awhile, until he started to walk over to me. I kept looking back and at my computer constantly. But when the man was right behind me, he completely vanished. I had my hands on my faces because I was so confused about what is happening right now. After school was over, I didn’t go home this time because I was nervous to go check my laptop. I went downtown to a grocery store. I just walked around, and then, something unbelievable happened. My laptop was sitting in an isle. It was playing the same exact video. “Oh-oh my god!” I exclaimed. I ran away from it. Then, something made me slow down and stop. I heard an awful ringing sound. I literally couldn’t move. I had my ears blocked and so did everyone else. “Stop that noise!” Said someone. I also had my eyes closed. “STOP IT! PLEASE MAKE IT STOP!” Said everyone. I tried to go over to my laptop. I stomped on and kept doing it til the ringing sound stopped. I told everyone: “It’s ok now! Someone left their laptop over here and it was left on autoplay!” Everyone was relived. I decided to go home now since my laptop is broken and it somehow ended up here. When I got home, I went upstairs to my room and laid down on my bed. And then fell asleep afterwards. I woke up in the middle of the night. I rubbed my eyes, got up, and checked my clock. It was 12:07. Then I heard something. I heard... A sound coming from behind me. I nervously turned my head, and saw... My laptop! It was now fixed. I gasped. And it was playing a YouTube video. Someone walking up to someone’s door. Then I heard a knock from downstairs. I didn’t want to go check the front door. Then I heard the door being busted down. Then I heard someone running upstairs. I ran into my bathroom and carefully and quietly closed and locked the door. I heard them reach into my room. Then I felt like I was gonna die when I heard the door knob wiggle. Then they started to bang on the door. I wanted to call out for my mom, but she’s a heavy sleeper. Then thankfully, I heard police sirens. But the person was still banging on the door. I heard cops bust in yell: “This is the police!” I screamed for help. When they rushed upstairs, the door busted open. It was a man, with a face covered in zits, and he looked homeless. Then the cops grabbed him and he started jumping and kick all around. When they took the man out of my house, I heard them drive away. I was still panicking about what just happened. I went to Skype to call Richard. He never picked up. Then, YouTube opened up. The home screen was disturbing. There was faces of dead people and animals on the screen. I threw up. I then decided to take my laptop. I went to a boatyard and threw it in the water. I had nightmares ever since. The next day at school, I told Richard everything. He was in shock. I told him that YouTube might’ve been taking over my laptop, so I threw it in the water. He said: “Aw man! Now you don’t have a laptop anymore! Now we can’t play Minecraft or Roblox!” I sured him that I can play those on my phone. But I will never forget what happened that night. And I will never want to use that website ever again. And I never used that phone number, nor will I ever want to call that number to see who will pick up. Because it might’ve been that man who broke into my house that night...